Food for healthy bones

A healthy balanced diet will help you build healthy bones from an early age and maintain them throughout life.

You need enough calcium to keep your bones healthy and vitamin D to help your body absorb calcium.

Poor bone health can lead to conditions such as rectus and osteoporosis and falling later in life can increase the risk of bone fractures.

You need to be able to get all the nutrients needed for healthy bones by eating a balanced diet.

Good nutrition is just one of the main obstacles to healthy bones, including exercise and avoiding certain risk factors for osteoporosis.

Calcium

Adults need 700mg of calcium daily. You should be able to get all the calcium by eating a varied and balanced diet.

Good sources of calcium include:

Milk, cheese and other dairy foods

Green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage and okra, but not spinach.

Soybeans

Tofu

Plant-based beverages with extra calcium (such as soy drinks)

nuts

Bread and anything made from fortified flour

Fish where you eat bones, such as sardines and pulchards

Although spinach contains a lot of calcium, it also contains oxalate, which reduces the absorption of calcium, and therefore is not a good source of calcium.

Vitamin D

Adults need 10 micrograms (400 international units or IU) of vitamin D daily.

It is difficult for us to get all the vitamin D from our diet and we get most of our vitamin D from the effect of sun on our skin.

From the end of March / April to the end of September, you can make vitamin D from sunlight without short periods of daily sun exposure without sunscreen. However, everyone should consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement during the fall and winter when we cannot make vitamin D from sunlight.

For infants and children, see Vitamins for Kids.

Endangered group

Some groups in the population are at higher risk of not getting enough vitamin D, and the Department of Health and Social Care recommends that they take a supplement of 10 micrograms (400IU) of vitamin D daily throughout the year. These groups are:

People who are not often out, for example if they are weak, locked up at home or living in a care home.

People who usually wear clothes that cover most of their skin when going out.

Dark-skinned people of African, African-Caribbean or South Asian descent

Good sources of vitamin D

Oily fish, such as salmon, sardines and mackerel

Egg-yolk

Fortified foods, such as some fat spreads and breakfast cereals

If you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, your doctor may prescribe calcium and vitamin D supplements as well as osteoporosis medication if they fear that your calcium intake may be low.

Too much vitamin A.

Some research has suggested a link between too much vitamin A and an increased risk of fractures. As a precaution, people who regularly eat liver (a rich source of vitamin A) are advised not to eat liver more than once a week, or to take retinol-containing supplements (vitamin A). A form commonly found in animal foods).

People at risk for osteoporosis, such as postmenopausal women and the elderly, are advised not to limit their retinol intake to more than 1.5mg (1,500 micrograms) daily and to eat less liver and liver products and retinol. Avoid supplements containing (including fish foods) liver oil).

Vitamin A

It's just a myth that eating carrots will help you see in the dark. Carrot's main nutrient, beta-carotene (responsible for the orange color of this root vegetable), is a precursor to vitamin A and helps adjust your eyes to dim conditions. Vitamin A may not give you night vision superpowers or cure your dependence on contact lenses, but eating the right amount will help with eye health.

Vitamin A also stimulates the production and activity of white blood cells, participates in bone regeneration, helps maintain healthy endothelial cells (which line the inner surfaces of the body), and cells. Regulates the development and distribution of as required for reproduction.

The two main forms of vitamin A in the human diet are prefabricated vitamin A (retinol, retinyl esters), and provitamin A carotenoids such as beta-carotene which are converted to retinol. Prepared vitamin A comes from animal products, fortified foods and vitamin supplements. Carotenoids are found naturally in plant foods. There are other types of carotenoids found in food that do not convert to vitamin A but have health-promoting properties. These include lycopene, lutein and xanthine.